Representative Adam Kinzinger, a prominent conservative critic of Donald Trump, claimed in an interview Sunday that the former president is increasingly “irrelevant.”
Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 of last year, appeared on ABC’s This Week. His comments followed a question about how the committee’s findings might have affected the former president’s standing among Republican voters, with the congressman responding that the more significant effects might be more visible in the long term.
“That doesn’t seem to have a big impact,” Kinzinger said. “Maybe people are moving more toward a potential, I don’t know, a Ron DeSantis. Trumpism isn’t dying, even though Trump is becoming irrelevant. I’m hearing a lot of anecdotal things, in the edges, of people who have been hard on Trump who now can’t stand him.
“I think, though, in the long run … five years from now, I still think it’s going to be hard to find someone who will admit that they were ever a Trump supporter, and I think that’s where that impact comes in, going forward. history”.
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Sunday that he believes former President Donald Trump is becoming increasingly “irrelevant” with voters. Above, a shot of Kinzinger during a hearing. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Despite Kinzinger’s opinion, Trump has considerable support in the polls, leading all hypothetical Republican presidential primary candidates in 2024. As Kinzinger noted, some support has begun to shift toward Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who polls show has the most support from outside Republican voters. from Trump
The former president has yet to officially declare his candidacy for 2024, although in his public statements he has consistently hinted at his intention to run for a second term. Some reports have alleged that Trump is weighing an early campaign announcement to try to avoid criminal charges based on the Jan. 6 findings of a House select committee investigation.
On Saturday, Trump told attendees at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Florida: “If I stayed home, if I announced that I would not run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately. But this it’s what they want. And you know what? There’s no way I’m going to do that.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s office for comment.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the only other Republican on the House Select Committee, said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 and his attempts to revoke the 2020 election constituted “the most serious misconduct of any president in our nation’s history.” However, he also said that the select committee has not yet decided whether to refer criminal charges against Trump to the Department of Justice.
“As I said, the committee has not yet decided whether or not we will make criminal referrals,” he added. “This is something that we take very seriously. And I would also say that the Department of Justice is certainly very focused … on what is the largest criminal investigation in the history of the United States.”